As a gardener, few things are more frustrating than nurturing your plants from seedlings to maturity, only to have them devoured right before harvest. If you’ve planted green beans, you may have had the unpleasant surprise of finding nibbled leaves, severed stems, or completely vanished plants. The likely culprit? Hungry rabbits munching on your bean crop.
Rabbits do indeed eat green bean plants. These critters love young, tender greens, and bean plants fit the bill perfectly. Left unchecked rabbits can decimate a bean patch overnight, leaving bare ground where your plants once stood. Fortunately, there are ways to thwart these hungry herbivores and protect your harvest.
Why Rabbits Love Green Beans
Rabbits are drawn to bean plants for the same reasons we grow them – the leaves and pods are tasty and nutritious. Beans provide vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein that rabbits need in their diet. The tender stems and leaves are easy for them to chew and digest. Plus, bean plants lack chemical defenses found in other species, making them an appetizing, low-risk meal.
Green beans are part of the legume family which includes other vegetables like peas. Rabbits eat the entire plant not just the beans, nibbling on stems, leaves, flowers and young pods with equal enthusiasm. This can quickly defoliate your once-robust vines.
Rabbits particularly relish young bean plants that are just a few inches tall. At this vulnerable stage, a single rabbit can wipe out dozens of seedlings overnight. But they will also go after larger, maturing plants. An infestation of rabbits may prune bean vines right down to the ground.
Protecting Your Crop
If you’ve found evidence of rabbits feeding in your bean patch, action must be taken quickly to protect your plants Here are some effective tactics
Fencing
Installing a fence around your garden is the best way to keep rabbits out. Use chicken wire or hardware cloth with openings no larger than 1⁄2 inch wide. Bury the bottom 6 inches underground so rabbits can’t squeeze underneath. Make sure the fence is at least 3 feet tall so rabbits can’t jump over.
For a small area, fencing just the bean plot rather than the whole garden can save time and money. Place the fence about 2 inches away from the actual plants to prevent nibbling through the openings.
Repellents
When bean plants are young, applying repellent sprays or dusts will make them less palatable. Once pods form, discontinue use to avoid chemical residue on the harvest. Look for natural ingredients like hot pepper, garlic, or oils. Reapply after rain or watering.
You can make your own repellent spray with cayenne pepper or chopped jalapeños. Add several peppers to a blender with water and a bit of vegetable oil and dish soap. Strain out solids and spray the liquid onto plant leaves.
Scare Tactics
Objects that make noise, move, or otherwise startle rabbits may temporarily deter them. Try wind chimes, shiny pie pans that spin in breeze, or old CDs hung with string. Sprinklers set on motion detectors to activate after dark may also help. Move items regularly so rabbits don’t get used to them.
Trapping
Live traps baited with greens work well for capturing nuisance rabbits. Once trapped, the rabbits should be released unharmed several miles away in appropriate habitat. Be sure it’s legal to relocate rabbits in your area first. Trapping takes diligence but can help reduce damage.
Predator Urine
The scent of predator urine, such as coyote or fox, triggers a fear response in rabbits. Look for predator urine sprays at garden centers or online. Apply around the perimeter of the garden every few days. This works best before rabbits start actively feeding.
Companion Plantings
Certain plants, like onions, chives, and marigolds, may deter rabbits when interplanted with beans. The strong scents mask the beans’ aroma. Just be sure companion plants won’t inhibit your beans’ growth by competing for sunlight, water and soil nutrients.
Row Covers
Covering bean rows with fabric row cover creates a physical barrier against rabbits. Use materials like Reemay that allow air, light, and water through but keep pests out. Drape covers directly over plants and secure the edges with stones, boards, or U-shaped garden staples. Remove during bloom for pollination.
Preventing Future Damage
Taking proactive steps in your garden’s design and maintenance can also discourage rabbit grazing:
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Eliminate hiding spots like tall grass, brush piles, and neglected corners where rabbits live and breed.
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Use fencing or pruning to open up at least a 20 foot clearance around garden perimeters. Rabbits shy away from wide open areas.
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Remove fallen fruits and vegetables that could attract rabbits hunting for snacks.
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Apply fertilizer and water judiciously to avoid producing excessive succulent new growth that rabbits find irresistible.
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Allow your dog access to the garden area – their scent and presence may deter rabbits.
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Plant sacrificial decoy plants (radishes, lettuce) away from your beans to divert rabbit attention.
Is Exclusion the Only Option?
While steps like fencing, repellents, and management will prevent most rabbit damage, you may be wondering if there are any bean varieties rabbits don’t like. Sadly, rabbits do not discriminate. They will eat any and all green beans with equal enthusiasm. There is no “rabbit-resistant” cultivar that will satisfy their appetite yet spare your crop.
Likewise, there are no effective naturalrabbit repellents derived from the beans themselves. Beans lack the chemical defenses found in other plant species. While ingenious in theory, bean plant extracts would likely have no deterrent effect on hungry rabbits.
Exclusion and making your garden less inviting remain the only foolproof solutions. But this doesn’t have to break the bank. With a bit of effort using the affordable, humane methods above, you can enjoy a bountiful bean harvest free of those pesky rabbits. Your family will be enjoying fresh green beans while the rabbits look elsewhere for their next meal.
The Bottom Line
Rabbits can quickly decimate a promising green bean crop if given the chance. But you can win this battle in your backyard garden. Understanding bunny behavior provides clues to outsmart them. A combination of fencing, repellents, habitat modification, and diligence will convince these furry pests to leave your beans alone and hop off in search of easier prey.
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Good Fences Make Good Gardens
Many kinds of fencing materials will deter deer. Some examples are chicken wire, field fencing, welded-wire fencing, and electric-net fencing. Whatever fencing material you choose, you must think high or wide. An 8-foot-high fence will do the job. That will require specialized posts and fencing that can be very expensive. Deer can get over a 6-foot fence, but they are less likely to try if there are two rows of fencing, or “a fence within a fence.” A simple chicken wire fence that is 5 feet high will do as long as you add an inner perimeter fence that is 3 to 4 feet from the outer perimeter fence. For the inside fencing, I like 16-foot-wide by 4-foot-high cattle panels because they can also be used as trellises for tomato plants, cucumber and squash vines, and pole green beans.
If there are less than 7 feet of space between cattle panels on the inside, they don’t have to be continuous. This requires planning when you’re considering what and where to plant within the garden. Deer will be worried about landing safely if there are structures like bean poles, raised beds, tomato cages, or trellises inside the fence. This could make them not want to make the jump.
If you have deer, you probably have rabbits, too. A well-woven apron of at least 10 inches should be curved out and away from the fence along the bottom of your fence. Chicken wire is your best option for keeping out smaller plant-eating critters like rabbits and turtles. It is a good idea to bury the wire apron to keep critters from digging under it. A 6-foot-tall roll of chicken wire will provide a 5-foot fence with a 12-inch apron.
You have chosen just the right spot. You put up a fence around the outside, but an interior fence around the outside costs too much for you. Maybe you can plant some plants around the outside that deer don’t like because they smell or taste bad. This will keep them from coming in. Allium (onions), Baptisia (wild or false indigo), lavender, and Salvia (sage family) can be used. When they bloom, they will make a pretty border.
Another plant that most gardeners include in their plantings is asparagus, which is also considered a deer repellent.
Since it is perennial, gardeners usually plant it along the fence, out of the way of spring tilling. A good herb garden on the inside of the fence with oregano, rosemary, garlic, and sweet basil can also keep pests away. I should say that in dry years when food is scarce, I can’t say for sure if plants will work as a deterrent.
Some bar soap manufactures have inadvertently added scents to their product that deer do not like. Two specific brands are Ivory and Irish Spring (original scent). I like to grate the soap and put it in small bags. An old sock with a hole in the heel works great.
Who needs to darn socks anyway? Put your favorite soap in the toe and tie it to the fence. Place soap bags a few feet apart around the entire perimeter of the garden. I have heard that the scent of human hair works as well as soap bags at deterring deer. I haven’t tried this, but other gardeners swear by this tactic. Ask at a nearby barber or beauty shop right before they close if they can sweep your hair off the floor for that day. Bring your own sack and use rubber gloves when handling the hair. Spread it liberally around the outer perimeter of your fence. You can also place some of the hair in the same sock bags as your soap. The hair will lose its scent after a few weeks, so you will need to apply it again while the plants are growing.
Other scents deer dislike are coyote urine and rotten eggs. If a gardener doesn’t have a good sense of smell, they can buy these commercial scents at sporting goods stores or online. Some products might not be eco-friendly, so be sure to check the labels before purchasing. Again, scent deterrents might not work very well in dry years or places where food is hard to come by, like cities.
Deer don’t like sudden sounds or rapid movements. This makes them vulnerable to homemade or commercial scare tactics. A simple way to make noise at home is to tie a light aluminum pie plate directly to the fence with a foot-long piece of twine. A slight breeze will move the plate, causing it to bump continuously against the fence. The flash of the aluminum also creates highly visible movement. Used CDs work as well. I like the pie plates better because they have a bigger surface area, which catches more wind, and when they hit the fence, they make a loud clacking sound.
Commercially available scare tactics offer motion-detection triggering and emit loud, high-frequency sounds. These work better than continuous sounds.
Deer will adapt to and ignore continuous sounds if no threat is perceived. It is recommended you change strategies often. Another commercial scare tactic is the motion-activated sprinkler. It shoots a fast stream of water that will make a deer think twice about invading your tomatoes.
Wildlife are only afraid of something while it’s new. Whether it’s the smell of a predator, a flash of light, or a blast of sound or water, they will keep doing what they want if they decide that it doesn’t bother them. For this reason, a good outdoor dog is one of the best scare tactics I know of.
I used the soap-in-a-sock method as an extra way to protect my green beans after planting them a third time and building a strong fence. I also hung aluminum pie plates on my fence. Deer and rabbits were kept away, and this year I was able to plant and harvest from my garden.
Here’s one last tip. These two options might work if you can’t afford to build a strong, permanent fence and all other attempts to stop the problem have failed. Next year, move your garden away from deer trails. Then put up a deer stand over your abandoned garden.
In November, put a nice venison roast in your slow cooker with potatoes, onions, carrots, and herbs from your new garden. This will make for a very satisfying fall feast.
Who Bit the Bean Plant?
Here are some clues: Rabbits have both a lower set of teeth and very sharp upper incisors. When they bite a young plant, the cut is clean. Deer have teeth on the lower jaw but only a hard palate on their upper jaw. Instead of a clean cut, the bite will be jagged or torn. There is a clean cut on the bean plant on Page 23, which means that a rabbit did it.
How to safely feed rabbits green beans and plants
FAQ
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